Recording stylus feed means



Oct. 31, 1950 R. D. THAYER I 2,528,190

RECORDING smus FEED MEANS Filed Dec. 15, 1947 INVENTOR.

ATTORNEYS.

Patented Oct. 31, 1950 I UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE RECORDING STYLUSFEED MEANS Richard -'llhayer, Worcester, Mass. Application December 13,1947-, Serial No. 791,492

in the provision of an improved sound recording.

apparatus of the class described comprising a recordcutter, means tofeed thesame, and manuallyoperated means for disengaging the feed meansso as to provide for making the spiral groove above described.

A further object of the invention resides in the provision of a soundrecording, apparatus having a rotating turntable on which is mounted theconventional disk of any usual type, in combination-with a swingingcutter arm having means toengage a feed screw so as to swing thecutterarm across the disk as it rotates in order to produce a sound track, incombination with means to disengage the cutter arm from the feed screwso that a spiral groove for automatic record changer operations may bemade manually at the end of the recorded sound track. 7

A still further object of the invention resides in the provision ofsound recording apparatus as 0 above described including a poweroperated feed screw located below the table, the cutting" arm beingprovided with a resilient screw follower which is adapted to rest on thefeed screwlbut due to" its inherent resilience may be easilymoved awayfrom the feed screw so as to free the cutting arm therefrom, incombination with a lever pivoted at the under side of the table, saidlever having a blade extending along the feed screw in position toengage the screw follower so that upon proper manipulation of the lever,the feed screw follower may be easily disengaged from the screw torelease the cutter arm from the feeding mechanism whereby the cutter armmay be swung manually to produce the desired spiral terminal groove.

-A still further object of the invention resides in the provision of asound recording apparatus as above described including a blank spot onthe feed screw in combination with an angular cutaway portion at the endof the blade so that even though the lever bein position to disengagethe cutter arm from the feed screw, still the feed screw follower willdescend along the inclined portion of the blade and be d rected i 1Claim. (01. 274 13)- theblank portion of the feed screw to automaticallyprovide an annular terminal groove.

Further objects of the invention are to pro'-- drawing in which 1Fig. 1. is a top plan view ofa device according to the presentinvention;

Fig. 2 is a view in front elevation thereof;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged bottom plan view, part being'broken away; I 1

Fig. 4. is an enlarged detail .view showing the actionof. thefeedscrewfollower; v I

Fig. 5 is an enlarged-view of the feed screw showing the blank spot; and

. Fig. 6 is an enlarged view of the operative end of the lever, showingthe angular terminal portion thereof.

It is to be understood that apparatus accord! ing to the presentinvention may be installed wherever necessaryor. desired such as in,radio cabinets, etc., and to this end there is provided a table In whichmay be set into a cabinet 01: the like and-bolted down if desired. Onthe table in there is provided a plate i2 on which is mounted t the:spindle?- extending through the topsurface of the plate 12, the usualmotor i6, and a gear box i8' for a feed screw 26, the latter beingdriven from the motor by well known means. A turntable 22 is adapted tobe rotated by the spindle and a swingingcutter arm 24 mounted on a pin26 is also provided asclearly shown. As so far described, the apparatusis more or less conventional and represents apparatus which may bepurchased on the market at the present time.

Fixed to the pin 26 there is an arm 28 located underneath the table andswingable with the cutter arm 2 The arm 28 terminates in a resilientthin plate 30, which is secured thereto by anydesired means. Plate 30 isprovided with a depending tooth 32, this tooth being adapted to rest onthe feed screw so as to swing the arm 28 and cutter arm 24 generallyradially of the turntable 22. Of course, it is well understood that thepitch of the threads on the feed screw 2, see, 190

will determine the spacing of the sound track cut by the cutting tool.

The feed screw 20 is provided adjacent its inner end with a non-threadedblank spot 34 and, of course, when the tooth 32 reaches the blank spot,the cutter arm will no longer be fed inwardly but will produce acircular finishing groove on the disk being out. It is to be clearlyunderstood, however, that the blank spot will merely make an annulargroove at the termination of the recording at one particular location orradius and this cannot be changed without changing the feed screw. Fromthis it will be seen that all recordmatic record changers but must beindividually 7 applied and removed from the turntable by hand.

As shown in Figs. 2 and 3, I provide a bracket 36 which depends from thetable ill and, in the absence of the table 10, from the plate l2. Thisbracket is provided with a pivot pin 38 on which is pivotally mounted alever 40. The left hand end of lever 40, as seen in these figures, isscrew threadedly mounted on a threaded pin 42 byany desired means, suchas a pair of nuts 44. The pin 42 is freely movable through a slot in thetable as at 46 and the pin is provided with a head 48 extending abovethe plate l2. A spring 50 tends to maintain the pin 42 in uppermostposition and a like spring 52 balances the same and prevents spring 50from raising the pin 42 to too great a degree. It is obvious, of course,that a light pressure on the head 48 will depress pin 42 and swing thelever and that the point of attachment of lever 40 to pin 42 may beeasily adjusted.

The other end of the lever in the particular case shown is twisted 90and provides a vertical blade 54 which is bent in a manner to be locatedparallel to the feed screw and underneath the screw follower tooth 32 asclearly shown in Fig. 3. The arm 54 terminates at 56 in an angularlyinclined portion which is located adjacent the blank spot of the screwat 34. A bumper 58 serves to eliminate vibration.

The parts are so arranged that when the cutter arm 24 is lifted to placethe cutter on the disk on the turntable, the screw follower tooth 32will be placed on the screw adjacent the free end thereof as at E8, andthe screw obviously will then travel the arm 28 in an angular manner, soalso traveling cutter arm 24 inwardly toward the spindle at apredetermined rate of feed to cut the sound track. Whenever it isdesired to dis* engage the feed screw from the follower tooth 32, it ismerely necessary to depress pin 42 by means of the button 48, whereuponthe lever is moved in a counterclockwise direction in Fig. 2, thusraising the blade 54 and disengaging the follower tooth 32 from thescrew 20 as is clearly illustrated in Fig. 4. Upon this being done, thecutter arm 24 may be moved inwardly manually so as to produce a blankspot on the record of a certain time duration and also. to produce thespiral groove necessary for the operation of automatic record changers.However, when the annular termination 56 is reached, the follower tooth32 will descend and come into the blank pocket 34 so that the operatormay release the cutter arm and automatically form the annular terminalgroove above referred to in the objects of the invention. The referencenumeral Ill indicates a stop against which the arm 23 will strike whenthe follower tooth 32 reaches approximately the center of the blankpocket 32 on the feed screw 20. This is for the purpose'of forming aterminal perfect circle on the record blank.

Having thus described my invention and the advantages thereof, I do notwish to be limited to the details herein disclosed otherwise than as setforth in the claim, but what I claim is:'

Recording apparatus comprising a support, a motor-operated turntablethereon, a movable cutter arm on the support, an under arm in fixedrelation to the cutter arm, said under arm being located beneath thesupport, said arms being movable together, a rotating feed screw underthe support, a resilient follower for the screw on the under arm so thatthe follower may rest on the screwto feed the arms, and optionallymovable means to raise the follower from the screw to leave the cuttingarm free to be moved manu- REFERENCES CITED The following references areof record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 887,429 Rosenthal May 12, 1908897,053 Boulanger et a1 Aug. 25, 1908 Berliner June 6, 1944

